Connecticuters in the nation’s capital including Rep. Rosa DeLauro and former Sen. Christopher Dodd gathered at the Washington Monument Friday for an emotional candlelight vigil for the victims of the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Nearly 20 people assembled in a small circle, each clutching a thin white candle, as they spoke about the tragedy, engaged in prayer, and stood in moments of silence with their heads bowed. They expressed shock at the shootings in the small community of some 27,000 people that left 28 dead, 20 of them children.

Text Size

-

+

reset

“They were just babies,” DeLauro remarked, noting that she had been in Washington this weekend to spend time with her grandchildren – ages 8, 5 and 3. “Every parent is identifying today with what happened.”

Dodd, now the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, held a candle and put an arm around his young daughter, Grace. In his brief comments during the 30-minute vigil, Dodd called the shooting “just hard to accept” and said of the spate of gun violence: “When are we going to learn?”

“I just think of those parents,” Dodd told POLITICO afterward. “I just can’t imagine. What can you possibly say?”

The impromptu vigil was organized by the Connecticut Society of Washington D.C., a coalition of about 250 Nutmeggers in the nation’s capital. Brian Mahar, the society’s president and a former staffer for Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), said he felt “we needed to put the community together.”

Though DeLauro said that, for now, the public needed to focus on aiding the victims of the tragedy, she said that eventually “reasonable people need to come together” to find ways to prevent gun violence.

DeLauro also praised President Barack Obama’s remarks from the White House Friday afternoon, noting that she has never seen him that emotional before.

Readers' Comments (4)

Nobody is saying take away ALL the guns. So that angle is rightwing BS!!!!

The only reason MORE children were blown away....

is because a MINORITY of bitter OLD white MALES, have for decades, REFUSED to ajust to the times and CHANGE their position on military assult weapons and gun show sales.

So in essence. All this boils down to is a minority of bitter old conservative white men, would rather tell lies and see more children shredded across America. Than adjust THEIR ATTITUDES a little bit.

So does anybody wonder why the party of bitter old southern racist , has an approval rating from WE THE PEOPLE, of something in the SEWER???

I didn't think so.

Dead kids are fine with Republicans and their wives too evidently. Just as long as impotent old *******s dont have to grow a pair and MAN-UP!!!

Cell phones cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people each year. Cell phones are used to plan and effect many different crimes such as drug dealing, burglary, robbery, hijacking, kidnapping, mafia hits, gang shootings, murders and cell phones are the number one device used to detonate terrorist bombs. Cell phones kill tens of thousands of people every year.

I am writing and will be lobbying for passage of federal legislation banning all cell phones in America.

P.S. the nut job didn't legally purchase the firearms, he STOLE them. Having laws against theft surely doesn't stop a criminal from stealing, so the only law that LIBs are advocating is the complete elimination of all guns. Good luck with that one.